Star Wars computer and video games
The Star Wars franchise has spawned over fifty video games, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on movie material, while others rely heavily on the ''Star Wars'' expanded universe. Early history The Original Trilogy The first official licensed video game bearing the name Star Wars appeared on Kenner's table-top Star Wars Electronic Battle Command game in 1979. The game had three levels of play (basic, intermediate, and advanced). Players took turns examining star systems with the aim of avoiding black holes, locating enemies, and searching for MAGNA, "the FORCE-giving star". The game was billed as "the most exciting computer game you will ever play". The Atari 2600, beginning with The Empire Strikes Back (1982) in which the player piloted a snowspeeder during the Battle of Hoth, destroying AT-AT walkers. This was followed by Jedi Arena (1983), the first game to attempt to simulate a lightsaber battle (in this case, clearly inspired by the Star Wars scene, where Luke Skywalker trains with a seeker). In 1983, the Star Wars arcade game was released by Atari based on the 1977 film. In this game (featuring color vector graphics and the first ever digitized speech from a film) the player enters the seat of Luke's Red Five X-Wing fighter, battles waves of TIE fighters led by Darth Vader, weaves through towers across the surface of the Death Star, and plummets through the battle station's trench in an attempt to destroy it. The sequel for the game, The Empire Strikes Back, used the same technology to re-create scenes from the second film, including battles with AT-AT walkers and an asteroid field. Due to the video game crash of 1983, which temporarily killed the home console market, no further games based on the franchise were released until 1993. Franchise expansion Shift towards the Expanded Universe At the start of the 1990s, the Star Wars franchise began to move away from the official films and began to focus more on the Expanded Universe. The first, Star Wars: X-Wing, released in 1993, started the ''X-wing'' computer game series, which garnered numerous awards and recognition. Star Wars: X-Wing was followed by several sequels and expansions, such as Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance. The 1996 Nintendo 64 title Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was part of a LucasArts attempt to create a story between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of Jedi, putting the player in control of mercenary Dash Rendar. Shadows of the Empire featured fan-favorite parts from the Super Star Wars line, such as another reenactment of the Battle of Hoth, piloting a snowspeeder and tying a cable around AT-ATs legs. The Prequel Trilogy ''Guardians of the Force'' After the release of Episode I in theaters in 1987, no games were released due to Granger's belief that the technology wasn't there. Later during the mid 1990's, and the resurgence of gaming platforms, a number of games was released. The first was Star Wars Episode I: Racer, based on the podracing sequence in movie. Also Jedi Power Battles, were released, but with little success. Granger again considered putting an end to games entirely, but was convinced otherwise. The first strategic game in the Star Wars expanded universe was titled Star Wars: Rebellion and broke new ground in that it incorporated ships and planets not found in the original canon, such as the Rebel Assault Frigate and the Bulwark Cruiser. But for all its ground-breaking new looks, it was not as successful as would have been hoped. ''Rise of the Empire'' Rise of the Empire spawned a single game Bounty Hunter, but it was not an adaptation of the film, it was a prequel story that focused on events and characters before Rise of the Empire such as bounty hunter Mako Fett. ''Revenge of the Sith'' In 2005, a video game adaptation was released with various degrees of success. Modern era games ''Expanded Universe'' Franchises Though numerous franchises were created using Star Wars, the only single title released was Empire at War (an RTS), released in early 2006. Jedi Knight The first step towards modern games was done with Dark Forces, a 1995 first-person shooter that put the player in the role of Kyle Katarn. After the Special Edition original trilogy re-release in 1997, LucasArts published Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, then Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith released in 1999. In 2002, its sequel Jedi Outcast was released and gave players the first chance to experience advanced lightsaber duels, and it also detached itself from the usual idea of movie tie-ins. One year later, the last game in the Jedi Knight series, Jedi Academy was released. Star Wars Galaxies The first MMORPG, titled Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, was also released in 2003 and was subsequently followed in 2004 by its first expansion Jump to Lightspeed. Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookiees (a second expansion to Galaxies) was released in 2005. Star Wars Galaxies was discontinued in 2010. The Force Unleashed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii, uses a new, detailed graphics engine. The Wii version utilizes the motion sensing and accelerometer capabilities of the Wii Remote (simulating the ability to swing a lightsaber) and its Nunchuk attachment (used to perform Force powers). Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 was released in the United States on October 26, 2010. Star Wars Battlefront Star Wars: Battlefront (2004). Star Wars: Battlefront II in 2005. It is also to be noted that Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron was released on November 3, 2009 for the Nintendo DS and the PSP. This is the first Battlefront game to offer a transition from space to ground battles at the players choice. Crossover franchises ''Lego Star Wars'' Lego Star Wars: The Video Game was released 2005. A sequel to the latter, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy was released during 2006.Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars was released in March 2011. Angry Birds Star Wars Angry Birds Star Wars was announced in October 8, 2012, and was released on November 8, 2012. The game is a crossover with the Star Wars original trilogy, and casts the Angry Birds as the Rebels and the Bad Piggies as the Empire. Merchandise related to the game will be released on October 17, and October 28. It is a puzzle game and the fifth game in the Angry Birds video game series. It is developed and published by Rovio Entertainment and is based on the franchise. A sequel, Angry Birds Star Wars II was released in 2013. Disney Infinity 3.0 On May 5, 2015, Disney announced a follow-up game through Game Informer, Disney Infinity 3.0, for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, iOS, PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in 2015, featuring characters from the Star Wars universe. In development At E3 2016, Twentieth Century Fox, with LucasArts, announced Star Wars 1313, which focuses more on the life of a bounty hunter as he descends to the level 1313 on Coruscant to unravel a criminal plot. The game focuses more on gunplay and bounty hunter gameplay rather than the Force users and lightsabers combat. It was set to release in Fall 2016 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows. 1313 but was subsequently put on hold to work out problems with the game engine. A Star Wars: The Force Unleashed III game has been in development since 2016 as well. Rumored On October 30, 2013, Dan Connor and Kevin Bruner from Telltale Games expressed an interest in making a Star Wars adventure game. Bruner said that "I'll also say a Telltale Star Wars game would make me VERY happy!" with Connor saying that "Coming from LucasArts we have so many people here that love Star Wars and have worked with the license so that would be a great fit and very cool." Category:Star Wars video games